Quick recap: I have three (well, more like two) months in which I have to complete an entire portfolio – preferably two sketchbooks or larger.

Now, I could have sat down and cried. I could have procrastinated and watched TV. (I mean, I only just found out that How To Get Away With Murder is back/has been back for weeks, so it’s not like I don’t have anything to watch.) I could have even gone “you know what, I’ll just apply for something that doesn’t require a portfolio” – but I didn’t.

I spent a painful amount on a shiny new graphics tablet, I charged up my camera, I rolled up my sleeves and I said “I’m going to work myself into an mental breakdown.”

Time management.

Once you learn to effectively manage your time, you’ll realise that you have more of it than you originally thought – and that you can get more out of the time you have.

Now, I realise that this is far easier said than done. In fact, it seems almost impossible to tackle time-management. Especially in this age of constant distraction – TV, internet, social media, texts, Whatsapps, apps constantly bombarding your phone with push notifications and begging for your attention.

Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s not.

Time management is very much an achievable goal – and just by reading this post, by showing an active interest in it, you’re already well on your way. Because, honestly, half the battle is being aware of time in relation to what you have to do. So today’s post is dedicated to showing you how I manage my time and meet my goals.

Ready? Let’s go.

My Goal Setting Spread

We all know I’m a bullet journalling addict. My bullet journal is to me what the ring is to Gollum. Cut me and I bleed washi tape.

So, naturally, to tackle this mountain of work my instinct was . . . let’s make a bullet journal spread!

Now, let’s pick apart this goal page and see all the things that make it effective . . .

How To Set Ambitious, Time-Restrictive Goals & Achieve Them

Break the goal up into smaller, more achievable chunks.Look, kids, before I say the next sentence I just want to ask: when have I ever lied to you? I don’t. If I think something is crazy, I’ll say it’s crazy.So trust me when I say you can do pretty much whatever you set your mind to. The trick isn’t in ability; it’s in belief. And not in some silly “if you believe you can be an Olympic athlete, you can be!” way, but in a realistic way.If I say to you “complete 3 years worth of artwork in two months”, you’re going to freak the fuck out. Right?

If I say to you “complete 2-4 sketchbook pages a week for the next three months” . . . it might be a lot of work, but you instantly go “I can do that”, right?

My first tip is to break up your goals into smaller, more manageable chunks. This way you’ll actually be motivated to do things as they look achievable – and you don’t feel like you’re doing too much and overworking yourself, which is when your brain will start to protest and say “fuck this, I’m out”.

Assign times and dates to tasks.
Again, this tip is to ensure that everything feels achievable – and gets done. Assign each task to a date that it needs to be completed by, so you start to gradually chip away at the bigger block. It’s entirely up to you how mercenary you are with this; for me, I like the flexibility of being able to work bit-by-bit after work, or for an entire day, or maybe just an hour each day – as long as a certain amount of tasks are completed per week, I don’t need to micro-manage my time. For some people, micro-managing actually works a lot better and I know people who plan things down to the hour!While I’d recommend leaving yourself room, do whatever feels the most comfortable.

Create a checklist.I know this seems like a weird and ultimately kind of pointless tip, but ticking things off a checklist is so weirdly satisfying – I actually find myself doing things just so that I can tick them off!

Procrastination is bad. Breaks are good.Your brain needs a break. That’s just a fact of life; you can’t spend all your time working hard. You’ll burn out and end up achieving less. So I’m a big believer int aking a break, having a relax and giving yourself some wind-down time. However, there’s taking a break and there’s procrastination.Maria recently wrote an absolutely brilliant blog post about beating procrastination that I highly recommend you reading (linked here) and I completely agree. Everything is doable . . . unless you spend all your time watching TV to put off doing it.

Procrastination is good if you procrastinate by working on other tasks on your list.That said . . . sometimes our brain works best when you give it something else to do. So if you’re painfully bored of what you’re meant to be working on, work on something else. That’s the great thing about having all your tasks listed – you can pick something that looks more appealing to you and get started on that instead.

And with that . . . we finish this post. I hope you found some helpful tips and tricks in this – what are your top tips for time management? Do you have any specific ways that you achieve your goals or are you some mystical unicorn that can just get things done instinctively? Also, the bullet journal spread – pastel highlighters were probably the best investment of 2017. What do you think? Let me know your thoughts down below!

Good luck. I have no time constraints and am the only person on an evening bus going around the entire city of Melbourne. Couple of hours already. A joy reading your words… you are procrastinating though…. 😅🌠🎪🎭

Ahhh very lucky! And thank you! I’ve actually managed to figure out a schedule so that blogging doesnt count as procrastination (because I need to blog) and I can use the featured images as projects if they’re pretty…at least I’m telling myself that😂😭

Your posts have been exactly what I’m looking for lately. Definitely need some time management in my life now that I’m back at uni and work! I’m definitely going to take these tips! Also, good luck with everything! x

Thank you so much lovely; I’m glad you’re finding them useful! Oh god, I can imagine! ;-; I hope these really work for you – and thank you so much! I just got my business cards (as a project) designed and printed, so I’m making good progress through the tasks 🙂 Good luck with uni! xx

I can only dream of being this organised one day hahah, I get motivated to set everything up but then when it comes to continuing with it I just get so lazy which is something I’m really trying to work on. I procrastinate way too much!! Great post as always girly, so helpful! xx

Honestly, you sound just like me last year – so I totally feel you! (Plus, I guess that’s good news because I’m organised nowadays so it can always happen!) I think I found something I was passionate about (blogging and bullet journalling) and used THAT to like fuel my organisation. Oh, and lots of rewards. Things like holidays, allowing myself to buy new clothes, etc actually really helped – it was like okay you know if you work you can go on this amazing holiday so just do it. Being organised for things you kind of hate isn’t easy at all; I haven’t mastered that part (I’m not this organised for work AT ALL) xD also lovely; have you seen your email yet? <3 xx

I hate proscratination, it’s one of the things I’m always guilty of. I need to learn to do things in advance so I don’t fall behind. I just to be really good with my schedule, but this year I have been slacking unfortunately. Really helpful post lovely. xx

You are genuinely the queen of advise and amazing photographs! Thank you so much for mentioning my post in this – procrastination and time management definitely go hand in hand, and it is great of you to give advice on the latter. Whenever something really urgent is coming up I definitely do take to kind of micro managing my time but otherwise doing a to-do list with broader things I need to achieve in a particular day is super helpful! Also, I have less than three weeks to prepare for my university entrance exam sooo we are kinda in the same boat hahah and being the queens that we are can definitely beat the tight deadlines;) Thank you so much for sharing this! xox

Thank you so much lovely girl! It’s really annoying; the lighting in my house atm is terrible because the days are getting shorter, but I’m trying! And of course; I completely agree – after I read your post I was like I have GOT to link to this 🙂 Oooooh good luck ;-; what sort of thing do you have to do to prepare?xox

I think I need to do something like this, I love making lists (it’s how I stay organized, most of the time) and it helps to do things I need to get done. The way you did it seems like a great idea though! It would definitely be a huge time saver!! 😀 And you’re right, procrastination is bad, I should know lol.

I know exactly what you mean – it’s just super motivating to be able to tick things off 😀 And omg tell me about it! I blame Christmas … it’s made me seriously sluggish and lazy ;-; Thanks for stopping by – and super sorry about the late reply, I’ve been CRAZY busy xx

ABOUT ME

Mia // 21 // Melbourne

Hello there, humans, and welcome to my corner of the web! My name’s Mia and I’m a Londoner, currently living it up in Melbourne. I love tattoos, crafting and a various assortment of random other things. Stick around, drop me a line and enjoy your stay!